Yale Center For British Art

NEW HAVEN — A warning about the current show at the Yale Center for British Art: There will be math. The unusual "Compass and Rule: Architecture as Mathematical Practice in England, 1500-1750" harks back to a time when architecture was emerging to take its place among the arts. An early jolt in the exhibit — organized by the Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford and the Yale Center for British Art — is the idea that architecture didn't exist before the 16th century.

By SUSAN DUNNE, sdunne@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, March 19, 2013

Yale Center for British Art on Saturday will host a screening of a wartime drama that is one of the most beloved movies ever made, but is underappreciated by audiences in the United States. "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" tells the life story of a aging, buffonish military man, going backward in time to explain how he came to be the way he is. Roger Ebert once wrote "Rarely does a film give us such a nuanced view of the whole span of a man's life... 'Colonel Blimp' makes poetry out of what the old know but the young do not guess.

In January 1779, the Westmorland, an armed British merchant ship, set sail from Livorno, Italy, destination London. It was filled with Italian food products, but also with artworks, souvenirs, books and collectibles being shipped home by British citizens who were in Europe on the traditional continental journey called The Grand Tour. France was at war with England, having given its support to America in the revolution. French warships seized the British ship off the coast of Spain, and took possession of all its contents.

In January 1779, the Westmorland, an armed British merchant ship, set sail from Livorno, Italy, destination London. It was filled with Italian food products, but also with artworks, souvenirs, books and collectibles being shipped home by British citizens who were in Europe on the traditional continental journey called The Grand Tour. France was at war with England, having given its support to America in the revolution. French warships seized the British ship off the coast of Spain, and took possession of all its contents.

Julian Sands performs "A Celebration of Harold Pinter" today at 6 p.m. in a free show at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven. The show, directed by J ohn Malkovich , features personal anecdotes and stories drawn from the work between the British actor and the celebrated British playwright, poet and screenwriter. Sands film credits include "A Room with a View," "The Killing Fields," "Warlock" and "Leaving Las Vegas. " The show is described": "Sands combines Harold Pinter's poems and political prose to offer fresh insight into the Nobel laureate's literary legacy.

It's the year of the roof!" Patrick McCaughey shouts as he clambers vigorously up an overhead steel-rung ladder from a fourth-floor maintenance room to the leaky rooftop of the Yale Center for British Art. McCaughey's jewel box of an art venue, with its leaky roof, failing rooftop light filters and tarnished interior, is about to undergo a $3 million facelift. So leaky and tarnished is the Yale Center for British Art -- repository of the greatest collection of English art outside of the United Kingdom -- that the 20-year-old New Haven landmark is going to shut down for one year starting Jan. 5. With the elegant but now somewhat worn- for-wear public galleries closed, the project will revive the Yale Center for British Art, from its leaky roof to its worn-out carpeting.

Donald Gallup, a Yale scholar, has donated more than $1 million worth of works by the Victorian artist and poet Edward Lear to the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven. Yale University President Richard C. Levin, museum director Patrick McCaughey and Gallup announced the gift at a press conference Wednesday morning at the center. The gift includes seven oil paintings, two oil studies on paper, 362 drawings, 30 prints, 10 signed letters and other manuscript and printed materials.

The 18th-century artist Giovanni Antonio Canale -- better known as "Canaletto" -- was a reluctant traveler, but at the height of his career as Venice's leading view painter, he left his native city for an almost decadelong tour of England. This period of Canaletto's career was previously regarded by most curators and academics as one of decline. The traditional view of the artist's time in England was that "he spent a lot of time waiting for the phone to ring," says Charles Beddington, guest curator of the major new exhibition "Canaletto in England: A Venetian Artist Abroad, 1746-1755," which opened Oct. 19 at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven.

By SUSAN DUNNE, sdunne@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, March 19, 2013

Yale Center for British Art on Saturday will host a screening of a wartime drama that is one of the most beloved movies ever made, but is underappreciated by audiences in the United States. "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" tells the life story of a aging, buffonish military man, going backward in time to explain how he came to be the way he is. Roger Ebert once wrote "Rarely does a film give us such a nuanced view of the whole span of a man's life... 'Colonel Blimp' makes poetry out of what the old know but the young do not guess.

The blue airmail paper notes from London, tapped out on an Olivetti typewriter, usually brought banking scion and British art collector Paul Mellon news of a good find. Then, in 1960, one of those letters, written by Royal College of Art librarian Basil Taylor, had exceptional information. After passing through a number of hands, the George Stubbs' "Zebra" -- the first painting of the animal brought from Africa to England in 1762 for Queen Charlotte -- had been found at Harrods, among a selection of old washing machines and secondhand goods.

Julian Sands performs "A Celebration of Harold Pinter" today at 6 p.m. in a free show at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven. The show, directed by J ohn Malkovich , features personal anecdotes and stories drawn from the work between the British actor and the celebrated British playwright, poet and screenwriter. Sands film credits include "A Room with a View," "The Killing Fields," "Warlock" and "Leaving Las Vegas. " The show is described": "Sands combines Harold Pinter's poems and political prose to offer fresh insight into the Nobel laureate's literary legacy.

The Yale Center for British Art has a fun double feature on Saturday, Feb. 25, of two old films about the Charles Dickens classic "Nicholas Nickleby. " Opening the show at 2 p.m. is "Nicholas Nickleby," the 1912 silent adaptation of the story. It is 20 minutes long. Following, at 2:30 p.m., is "Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby Is a Friend of Mine," a 1982 adaptation of a short story by Ray Bradbury about a mysterious stranger in a small town. The event is part of the "Charles Dickens at 200: A Celebration in Film" series, to celebrate the 200th anniversary in 2012 of Charles Dickens's birth.

By SUSAN DUNNE, sdunne@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, October 28, 2011

Johan Zoffany (1733-1810) was a prominent artist in his lifetime, a German transplanted to England and a favorite of King George III, aristocrats who hired him for family portraits, his fellow members of the Royal Academy and the stars of the London stage. But after his death, and for more than 100 years beyond, scholarly interest in Zoffany virtually disappeared. Since 1920, a few books have been published about Zoffany, including one major biography, in 2009. And another major gap in Zoffany appreciation closes this week, when the Yale Center for British Art opens "Johan Zoffany RA: Society Observed," the first major survey show of Zoffany's work in the United States.

By ROGER CATLIN, rcatlin@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, March 6, 2011

Thomas Lawrence's prodigious talent as an artist was evident as a child growing up in his parents' inn in Wiltshire, England, in the late 18th century. It came in handy because he had to become his family's chief breadwinner after his father went bankrupt in 1780. Sales of Lawrence's remarkably controlled pastels and drawings kept the family afloat as traveling writers took note of "his astonishing skill in drawing" when he was still 11. At 18, after moving to London, Lawrence enrolled in a three-month training course at the Royal Academy, which accepted seven of his pastels for exhibit.

The blue airmail paper notes from London, tapped out on an Olivetti typewriter, usually brought banking scion and British art collector Paul Mellon news of a good find. Then, in 1960, one of those letters, written by Royal College of Art librarian Basil Taylor, had exceptional information. After passing through a number of hands, the George Stubbs' "Zebra" -- the first painting of the animal brought from Africa to England in 1762 for Queen Charlotte -- had been found at Harrods, among a selection of old washing machines and secondhand goods.

The 18th-century artist Giovanni Antonio Canale -- better known as "Canaletto" -- was a reluctant traveler, but at the height of his career as Venice's leading view painter, he left his native city for an almost decadelong tour of England. This period of Canaletto's career was previously regarded by most curators and academics as one of decline. The traditional view of the artist's time in England was that "he spent a lot of time waiting for the phone to ring," says Charles Beddington, guest curator of the major new exhibition "Canaletto in England: A Venetian Artist Abroad, 1746-1755," which opened Oct. 19 at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven.

It's the year of the roof!" Patrick McCaughey shouts as he clambers vigorously up an overhead steel-rung ladder from a fourth-floor maintenance room to the leaky rooftop of the Yale Center for British Art. McCaughey's jewel box of an art venue, with its leaky roof, failing rooftop light filters and tarnished interior, is about to undergo a $3 million facelift. So leaky and tarnished is the Yale Center for British Art -- repository of the greatest collection of English art outside of the United Kingdom -- that the 20-year-old New Haven landmark is going to shut down for one year starting Jan. 5. With the elegant but now somewhat worn- for-wear public galleries closed, the project will revive the Yale Center for British Art, from its leaky roof to its worn-out carpeting.